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The fog that had shrouded her brain cleared. Her dark mood lifted.
Her mind focused on running and only running and it was a few minutes before she thought to glance over her shoulder, and realized she’d left her sister behind.
She turned and Jenna finally caught up with her.
“How can you be that fit when you’ve been sitting down for months?” She doubled over, panting. “I hate you.”
Lauren grinned. “I’ve done a lot of pacing.” She took a sip from her water bottle. “This was a great idea.”
“Glad you think so.” Jenna heaved air into her lungs. “I hate running. It’s boring.”
“Not when you run with someone.”
“Maybe not, but I wasn’t running ‘with’ you. I was in your slipstream.”
Lauren felt the wind feather her face and pull gently at her hair.
How was it almost May? It felt like yesterday that the police had knocked on the door, and yet it also felt like a lifetime ago. A different life.
The days had passed, hour by painful hour, and somehow while she’d been wrapped up in layers of wool and grief, the weather had become kinder. The wind had lost its bite and sunlight danced across the surface of the water. It was early spring, and the air was already filled with the promise of warmer months, of a lush hot summer, as if the Vineyard was stretching sleepily after a winter of hibernation.
Jenna stretched. “We should turn back or I’ll be late for school and my little monsters will be uncontrollable. I have to be ahead of the game.”
“You love it, don’t you?”
“Teaching? Yes. There’s nothing I’d rather do. Once I close that classroom door, everything in my world feels right.”
Lauren glanced along the beach in the direction she’d been running. Another twenty minutes and she’d be at the boathouse where Scott worked. “Would you hate going back without me?”
Jenna followed her gaze and smiled. “No. Go.”
“First tell me how you are.” She never knew whether to mention the baby or not. “How are things?”
“I’m not pregnant, if that’s what you’re asking.” Jenna shrugged. “I need to get back.” She turned but Lauren grabbed her arm.
“Are things all right between you and Greg?”
“What do you mean?”
“The last few times you’ve come round to the house, you’ve come alone.”
Jenna shrugged her off and stooped to adjust her running shoes. “He’s busy, that’s all. And we’re working on the house, not socializing, so there didn’t seem much point in bringing him.”
“Right.” Was the whole baby issue creating a problem for them? Lauren made a note to pay closer attention to her sister. “Thank you for making me do this. I owe you.”
“This is just the beginning. Today a sedate run along the beach, tomorrow jumping off the Jaws Bridge.”
Lauren laughed. “It’s low tide, so no thanks. Let’s take it a step at a time.”
She watched her sister lope slowly back along the sand.
If she could have willed her to be pregnant, she would.
When she’d discovered she was expecting Mack, she’d felt nothing but terror. She’d felt desperately unready to be a mother.
Jenna was more than ready and she and Greg would make great parents.
As the sand grew softer and grainier, Lauren returned to the bike path and ran in the shade of the trees, her pace steady as she closed in on the marina.
